Seeing Friday : problems of perception and reception in post-colonial theatre

Abstract

Through his spy-glass, a man watches naked savages dancing on the beach far below. This thesis centres on this iconic scene from Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, used as a paradigm for the problems of perception in the theatre. Robinson's "perspective" glass becomes symbolic of the distorting influence of expectation in perception. The significance of this text in the canon of patriarchal Western culture gives emphasis to the contention that the creation of theatre (and negotiation of perception) in a post-colonial context is especially problematic. What is the impact on theatre when expectation is created elsewhere? Is it ever possible for an audience to see past these expectations? If not, what is the prognosis for theatre? This thesis is based on an assumption of the intrinsic value of theatre as a communicative art form, and examines questions of reception from the perspective of both performer and spectator. The theories of the Constance school reception theorists, particularly Jauss and Iser, are utilised to examine the impact of an audience's "horizon of expectations" on perception. Various feminist theories explicate specific difficulties in theatrical perceptions of the body. Physical and "psychic" nakedness are interrogated as theatrical devices to confound expectation through the analysis of performances by Katy Dierlam, and Michael Parmenter. Based on an actor's desire to communicate with the audience, this thesis analyses the approaches of major theatre theorists of the twentieth century, including Bertolt Brecht, Jerzy Grotowski, and Richard Schechner, towards the successful creation of a theatrical structure capable of involving and activating its audience. This is a search for structural strategies, suggested by reception theory, which will counter the inherent conservative inclinations of theatrical form in the creation of communicative theatre. Although, ultimately, the question of the possibility of such theatre remains unanswerable, the utilisation of these theories in the practice of theatre lends hope, and practical beginning-places, to the enterprise of post­ colonial theatre.